Michigan State’s Abuse Scandal Draws Comparisons to Penn State’s

Scott Olson, Getty Images

As sexual-abuse victims continue to testify at the sentencing of Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University professor and USA Gymnastics physician, many people have compared the case to the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal that shocked Penn State a little over six years ago.

In November 2011, prosecutors charged Mr. Sandusky, the Nittany Lions former defensive coordinator, with dozens of counts of molesting young boys (he was later convicted on most of those counts and was effectively sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison). Dr. Nassar pleaded guilty late last year to seven counts of first-degree sexual assault and has been accused of sexual abuse by more than 100 young women. Like Mr. Sandusky, Dr. Nassar is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. Mr. Sandusky’s youngest known victim was 7 years old. Mr. Nassar’s was age 6.

As Dr. Nassar’s sentencing hearing has focused renewed attention on his case, many observers are asking, why has it not generated the same level of outrage as Mr. Sandusky’s did?

In Ingham County Circuit Court in Lansing, Mich., Dr. Nassar’s victims have criticized the university’s failure to protect them from their abuser. And the volume of the criticism against university administrators — particularly Michigan State’s president, Lou Anna K. Simon — has increased throughout the hearing.

A Detroit News investigation published last week found that at least 14 people at the university had heard abuse allegations against Dr. Nassar starting as early as the 1990s, and Ms. Simon was warned at least once about his behavior.

The Nassar and Sandusky cases share obvious similarities: Both spanned years, involved both sexual abuse and athletics, and raised troubling questions about what keeps some colleges from investigating claims of criminal behavior by their employees.

But many observers have focused on the differences in explaining the disparate level of outrage surrounding both cases.

Jessica Luther argued in a column on BuzzFeed that the Nassar case was largely overlooked because gymnastics is a women’s sport. Dr. Nassar’s victims, all girls and women, are seen as more vulnerable to abuse compared with the boys that Mr. Sandusky assaulted, so there is less of a public outcry to punish administrators at Michigan State, Ms. Luther argued.

Jemele Hill echoed that argument on the sports website The Undefeated, writing that “because this is gymnastics and not big-time college football, and young women versus young boys, the public outrage hasn’t matched the magnitude of the atrocities committed.”

The role of big-time college football was a key component of the Sandusky case. Mr. Sandusky’s association with Penn State’s prestigious program elevated the case’s prominence and raised uncomfortable questions about whether the abuse was kept under wraps because of potential damage to a football dynasty.

The cases also differ in how closely their universities were associated with the abuse.

Dr. Nassar’s abuse extended beyond Michigan State athletes to his work with USA Gymnastics. Prosecutors say 144 victim-impact statements will be delivered or read in court.

At Penn State, Mr. Sandusky used his college-football clout to abuse young boys he met through the nonprofit he founded, the Second Mile. He abused young boys, not students — but at university facilities.

The fallout from the scandal at Penn State was intense. The president, Graham Spanier, was forced out and eventually convicted on a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of children. It’s still unclear how Michigan State’s administration will fare in Dr. Nassar’s case.

“Nassar will go to prison, probably for the rest of his life. He will, finally, be held accountable,” Ms. Luther wrote for Buzzfeed. “But he wasn’t able to do what he did in a vacuum, and it’s remarkable how little has changed, how few people have been punished in the wake of these systemic failures at two major institutions, and how little public outcry there has been around these failures.”

Michigan State’s leadership hasn’t toppled. Ms. Simon remains at the head of the institution, but state lawmakers, newspaper editorials, and some of Dr. Nassar’s victims have called for her to resign.

The institution’s governing board, however, issued a unanimous statement of support for Ms. Simon on Friday. A day later, a lone trustee broke ranks and asked the president to step down so that “the healing process” could begin.

Meanwhile, Ms. Simon’s opponents are exploring other means of ousting her. One man filed a petition on Monday asking Gov. Rick Snyder to remove Ms. Simon from her position. A spokesman for Mr. Snyder’s office said the governor lacks the authority to do so, the Lansing State Journal reported.

Outside the university, however, the fallout came swiftly. Three top executives of USA Gymnastics — the chairman, vice chairman, and treasurer — resigned from the organization on Monday.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a breaking-news reporter. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.